S'il Vous Plait Rappelez Moi ( Please, Remember Me )

Prologue

Light.

Yes, he's not mistaken. Light exists at the end of this long, dark tunnel, after all.

He ran towards the light. There, almost there,...

At last, he made it. Ah, but it blinded him,...

******

He woke up from a seemingly long slumber, unnerved with what he just dreamed of.

Well, any sane person would be.

If they are going through the exact same thing.

"Hey!" a very irritating and familiar voice called from afar. Ah, just great. She's waving her hand like the eccentric fool she was. Just like what she used to do. And now, she's standing before him, blocking his entire view of the campus. "I knew I'd find you here, Levi." There it is again, her diabolical smile. He sighed.

"What do you want, four - eyes?" his voice was strangely husky. Ah, maybe it was one of the benefits, and quirks, of being the unfortunate neighbor of a weird science - freak couple who always leave their brat of a son and his foster sister to him whenever they go away for work. They're not sure exactly why but, they do seem to trust him even though he always looked too suspicious to be around with kids. Yesterday, the boy, the brat, made a complete mess of his neat and tidy living room by scattering toilet paper, toilet paper, for fuck's sake, all over the floor and pretending that he was some kind of a monster that ravaged the city. He was on a tirade, giving him the scolding of his life, when the sweet, and weird, little foster sister mentioned that the bathroom's a total,...

"Hey, Levi, are you even listening?!" the annoying lady said. Her noisiness didn't lessen even one bit. Even now she's always screechy. "I'm saying we should watch it. Everyone's coming, you know. Even Erwin agreed to,..."

"I'm not coming." said Levi without emotion.

"Oh, dang it! Why are you always like this?" said the woman, who suddenly had an urge, and the gall, to join him on the bench. His favorite bench, where he used to relax during his free time, reading or taking a nap, protected by the shade of the largest tree in the campus. "Look, here you are, almost thirty - five, and you still don't have a girlfriend,..."

"And there's a problem with that?" he said, grabbing his pure white handkerchief and wiping his plain glasses with it.

"What, are you serious? Come on, you're not that bad looking. Actually, I know girls who really like you."

"Like who?" this conversation's really getting on his nerves.

"There's Sasha, my assistant - "

"Who likes to sneak in snacks during class hours. Now, I don't know if you don't find her gluttony disturbing enough but, her messiness is just abysmal."

The woman was taken aback by what Levi said, as if she was not already used to his way of speaking. "Then, how about Annie, she's definitely not messy,..."

"Yes, you're right. And she's a creep."

The woman was really getting challenged. "Oh, and you know the campus sweetheart Christa,..."

"Are you really that much of an exploiter to twist your student?"

"Oh, but she's nice,..."

"Yeah, and so is her girlfriend, Ymir."

"That is way too harsh, Levi!"

"Oh, and you're not?"

"Oh hohoho, I'm not done yet, shorty," the woman mustered her remaining patience to tip Levi's impenetrable balance. "I've not even mentioned Mina,..."

"Don't even know her."

"Gahhh!" the woman started picking her brown hair in irritation. "You're heartless, after all!"

"Give it up, Hange." Levi wore his perfectly clean glasses, picked up his books, and stood. "Besides, I'm not interested."

Hange pouted, then sighed with disbelief. It is really hard to convince Levi of anything. She watched as he walked towards the prestigious building. They knew each other for sixteen years now, and she honestly believed that she found a friend in him, only that the uninteresting man kept pushing her away whenever she tried inviting him to parties, or to any place at all. Erwin, her friend and colleague, agreed that Levi was, indeed, a lone wolf. But, they respected him anyway, for, after all, he's a really exceptional History professor. No other person touched his talent with it. Plus, he's surprisingly kind and patient. Hange witnessed this before once when she visited him and saw that his neighbor Grisha's son Eren climbed a tree, only to find out that he couldn't come down. Grumpy old Levi went to his rescue, despite having to disrupt his weekend ritual of cleaning his front yard, climbed the tall tree with ease, carried little Eren and went down. Little Eren began having tantrums, insisting that with the right kind of momentum, he could come down. The boy started punching Levi with his small and pudgy hands, and when he realized that the older man couldn't be convinced otherwise, he started crying. What a scene of complete brattiness that was. Yet, despite all that, Levi remained cool and calmed the boy down, inviting him to watch cartoons inside, completely aware that the boy's messy as hell. Of course, like any other kid, Eren cheered up instantly and smiled, completely forgetting about the whole tree scene. He's good like that, and Hange personally think that he'd be good with a kid of his own.

Except that Levi never really invited anyone close to his heart.

But, Hange never gave up. Earlier, she tried inviting him to watch the latest horror flick together with her friends Erwin and Mike, and with some female colleagues who are actually very interested in Levi. But, to no avail,...

"Oh, very well," Hange said to herself. "You deserve someone, Levi. You'll see,..."